HIGHTSTOWN — Bryan Rivers and Nate Hickman knew they had a tall order ahead of them Sunday in the championship game of the Peddie School Invitational Tournament.

Not only had it been two decades since the Peddie School boys basketball team won the pre-Christmas tournament it has hosted for 41 years, but this time around the Falcons also had to try to do so against Wilbraham & Monson Academy’s 6-foot-10 senior Goodluck Okonoboh.

The latter was a more imposing problem since no one in Peddie’s regular lineup is taller than 6-foot-5, while the Titans had three other players besides Okonoboh taller than that.

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Yet, with the game on the line, it was the 6-foot Rivers and the 6-foot-4 Hickman going right at the UNLV-bound Okonoboh to produce the difference in a 61-59 win against Wilbraham & Monson, which sent the partisan crowd at the Erik B. Hanson Field House in the Ian H. Graham Athletic Center into hysterics.

“I’m trying to prove I can play with anybody,” said Hickman, a postgraduate from Newark, Del., who was giving up 6 inches in his head-to-head matchup with Okonoboh. “We had to try to match his intensity.”

Hickman did just that to help the Falcons emphatically rally from a six-point second-half deficit.

With 4:33 remaining in the fourth quarter, Hickman got free on the break and went up for a one-hand jam over Okonoboh, which gave the home team a 57-54 lead. The Titans, who led, 54-51, with six minutes to play, never led again after Hickman’s slam dunk, although they did tie the game at 59 when Okonoboh hit one of two free throws with 1:20 left.

George Langberg, who had tied the game at 54 with his second 3-point field goal of the day, missed one with under a minute remaining. Then Okonoboh was fouled with 9.8 seconds left, but he missed the front end of his 1-and-1 free throw attempt.

After a timeout, Rivers took matters into his own hands. As Peddie inbounded, it got the ball to the former West Windsor-Plainsboro High South star near midcourt.

Rivers started forward and never stopped as he sliced into the lane and floated a ridiculously high shot over the outstretched arm of Okonoboh. It dropped through the net to give the home team a 61-59 lead with 2.5 seconds left.

“In the timeout, I said, ‘Coach, give me the ball,’” Rivers said. “(Okonoboh) is very tall. I’m glad I got the last shot to go on him.”

It almost was not enough as Titans guard Taylor Fortin fired a halfcourt shot that clanked off the rim before the Falcons could claim their third PSIT title.

It was Peddie’s first PSIT crown since 1993, the last time a Falcon claimed the Most Valuable Player trophy. This time, it went to Hickman after scoring 14 points in the title game and 75 in the tournament.

Rivers, who led Peddie with 19 points Sunday, joined Hickman on the All-Tournament team. Everson Davis chipped in 17 points.

Despite contributing 15 points and 13 rebounds to cap a impressive three-day showing, Okonoboh was left off the All-Tournament team in favor of 6-foot-4 junior guard Curtis Cobb III, whose game-high 22 points kept WMA in the contest after falling behind, 16-8, in the first quarter and, 25-18, in the second.

Junior forward Marcel Pettway’s 12 points and nine rebounds helped the Titans tie the game at 31 by halftime, then take a 45-39 lead with two minutes left in the third quarter.